Catalyst
by Queen of Crack Pairings
Summary: Pardign notices something strange about his home town, and it all goes downhill from there. Ancarui? She's busy slogging her way through Mount Vellenge and talking to herself again. How come she's the cornerstone of it all? Heavy spoilers.


He was tired of WAITING. He'd been waiting for…How many years had gone by since the caravan had first left?

He rubbed the bridge of his nose thoughtfully, smearing soot in a nice, thick stripe. Well, the waiting had gone on for whatever forever could be. And he was justifiably irritated at it all.

The endless smithing, day in day out, doing the same things every single day, seeing the same children remain children despite having had endless birthdays since that one catalyst, that one day when time had stopped in Edge.

And he was angry at having to wait. Him of all people. Pardign, the usually-serene, cheerful blacksmith's son, was in a BOILING RAGE.

Throwing down the sword he'd been trying to sharpen in vain, the Clavat stormed outside into the sunshine and roared at the top of his lungs. Sure, everyone in the square stared at him, and his twin brother sniggered away as he trotted over the road to Dyne's house. But he had to do something.

"Hey, Pardie…"

Someone was tugging at his pants leg, and he relaxed a little when he saw Deh Tiy, Ancarui's little brother, staring up at him. "Pardie, when's 'Rui coming home?"

"I don't know," he replied, kneeling down and feeling odd as he stared at this permanent child's round face. "She'll be home soon though. The festival is coming up, and she's always home early."

Why was Deh Tiy still only a child, anyway? He'd never noticed it before. Sure, he'd just thought about it but it had never really HIT him like this. "Deh Tiy…How old are you now?"

"I've been five for…Mama says it's been twenty years since Rui left, an' I've been five for that long. Yeah."

Pardign felt like he was about to vomit, to fall over to spin dizzily with his surroundings and instead he just kind of…Fainted.

The last thing he saw before he let his brain stop trying to comprehend these things was the face of a young girl, her eyes a pale blue and her hair a brilliant white.

"Don't try and think about it. She's the key to it all, but it's not her fault. Wait for her work to be done," the girl said softly, almost in a motherly tone, and Pardign obeyed.

"Hey Pardign…"

The Cowlick Clavat woke up with a start, gasping for air and trying to see if that girl was still around. After all, she'd been talking about Ancarui, hadn't she?

"Pardign, focus. See the metal on my helmet? Look at that. Shiny shiny."

The glint of the polished metal indeed caught the poor, disoriented boy's eye and he finally calmed down enough to see that Nadjyäa was sitting at the foot of his bed, gaze trained firmly on him.

"Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me. What happened?" the Yuke asked, her voice trembling a little.

"Nads, did you ever think about how long the kids have been kids?" he replied, feeling like the world was spinning again. But he had to say it, had to share it.

"Yeah, I've noticed. Ever since Rui left, right?"

She sighed and dramatically threw her arms out, shrugging for his benefit. "She's the catalyst of our town's…Stagnancy. Strange though it may seem."

"Did you see the girl? There was a girl. She looked like Hex, but she wasn't a Selkie. She wasn't…She wasn't anything. Just a girl."

"Oh, the blonde, blue eyed girl? Yes, that's an illusion. Magic. We're under a spell, Pardign."

Nadjyäa said it so nonchalantly, like it'd been proclaimed loudly by Roland in the square every morning since Ancarui had left.

"I guessed. But…She talked about Rui. Why?"

"Something about 'work needing to be done'? I got the same spiel."

The girl got up, her helmet turning away from Pardign at a bizarre angle. "Ancarui is the cornerstone of this. This…Vision, this girl, she's depending on Rui to finish her 'work'. But…What is the work, and how do we know if this girl is trying to harm or help us?"

"I don't…I don't know…" replied the blond softly, feeling ashamed of himself. "I'm only a Clavat, Nads. I don't know much about this sort of stuff-"

"Don't say that, that brings Ruianca and Carris, and even your cousin Finn down onto your level. Stop with the self-pity, already."

Muffled laughter, before the Yuke walked out. "Don't forget the festival! It's on tomorrow night, and Rui will be back then, by the grace of the Lady of Light."

The festival's annual date passed, and the crystal began to dim. The first victim of miasma poisoning was one of Hex's family cattle. Then the fish began to pile up on the riverbanks.

Everyone in Edge was in a panic, debating over whether to evacuate or to wait. This wasn't like Ancarui; she was usually back at least a day before the festival…

And the old members of the caravan, from Caëran to Ruianca and everyone in between, gathered in the village square to discuss just what could've happened to their friend.

"I think she's just gone and bitten off more than she can chew," sniffed Carris, before looking at his twin brother disparagingly. "Good riddance, if you ask me."

"Carris!" hissed Pardign, his face going red with anger. "Stop it! We're not here to pick on Ancarui while she's gone! And without her, we'd be dead! There wouldn't be a caravan!"

"Hmph."

The redhead turned away, leaving the others to talk. And Nadjyäa took up the speaker's position.

"Pardie and I noticed that the village…The village has become weird since we started the caravan, and especially since Ancarui left for the first time. No one's aged, nothing's changed, time has STOPPED. Dyne!"

"Yes?" drawled the Lilty, giving up on trying to convince Carris to act civil.

"You got your hand stuck on a nail once, right?"

"Yeah…No scar or anything!" grinned the shorter girl, holding up her hand and gazing at it.

"That's because we're IMMORTAL. I've cut myself on knives lots of times, but no scars. And Yukes scar easily because of our fur. Carris should have burns and calluses all over his hands, Pardign should be slowly turning black with soot, Ruianca's hands grow no rougher from farm work, Hex doesn't tan, and Caëran…Well, he doesn't get injured anyway, but still. We're pretty much perfect. No flaws other than what we were born with."

Caëran quickly spoke before Nadjyäa could continue.

"So you're saying that, because of something to do with Rui, we're immortal. We can't die."

"Yes. But…I don't know if miasma is affected by this magic."

Everyone was silent at this, either shocked at the seriousness or the hilarity of this 'situation'.

And Pardign spoke up, voice shaking as he struggled to find the words.

"I…Well, Nads and I…When we realised what was going on, we both saw this girl…She wasn't a Selkie, or Clavat, or Yuke or Lilty…But she was so pale…She looked like she was white all over…And she started talking about Ancarui having 'work' to do, and that we shouldn't do anything to stop her…"

"This girl could be evil, for all we know!" Carris cried as he gave his twin the filthiest look a Clavat could muster.

"I gotta say, this does seem pretty evil. She wouldn't be tryin' to keep us all stuck in time if she were good…" muttered Hex. Her eyes scanned the square as she attempted to keep her fingers busy with her plaits. "…Did she look rich?"

"He-eeeeex…" sighed Dyne. "See the bigger picture here."

"I am. We could get a lot of money from her if she comes back."

Everyone began arguing then. It was absolute chaos, until Ruianca cast Slow on everyone and began to sign rapidly. It came out to something along the lines of 'Calm down! Let's just wait it out a little longer, alright?'

And so, with the thought of Tida heavy on their minds, they did.

Ancarui was perched on a crag, overlooking the snow-blasted mountain and the carcasses of all those monsters she'd slaughtered. She began to talk to herself as her loneliness dictated, and wasn't surprised to hear that little, whispery voice (she assumed it was just her head trying to reassure her that she wasn't nuts and that there _was_ someone there talking to her) chatter back.

"I don't think that I like this area. Maybe I should head back to Edge…It's probably late."

"No, you're so close. Can't you feel it? After all your effort, to just give up would be a waste of everything."

This made the Selkie frown, and she bit into a Striped Apple with no small amount of confusion.

"So close to what, though?" she said slowly, letting the words roll off her tongue and into the harsh wind.

"The end. You remember what the Carbuncles told you, don't you? There's something here that can _stop miasma_ and you'd be a fool to give up now."

The little voice sounded urgent now. Oh she was so definitely going utterly insane.

"Well, if you say so. But the festival…It'll be coming up soon. I should try to be really quick. I don't want to be responsible for another Tida…Come on Mog, off we go!"

The fur-ball dutifully flew after her. He was used to her little chats with herself by now (_twenty long years of it and anyone would be used to it_).

But now she was singing to herself, sounding even more insane because of the way she was just so aimlessly swinging her Queen's Heel as she sang and _oh wow there was a cave_.

And they went in, deeper into the mountain and deeper into hell.

Her little friend was trying so hard to keep Edge going. She couldn't bear to tell the Selkie that her beloved town was dying already.

Carris was blue in the face, kicking gasping wheezing for air and Pardign couldn't do a thing because his brother was dying and why wasn't his family trying to help? Why was Ramsey standing in the doorway crying instead of trying to save the boy, fetching Ruianca and Nadjyäa to Cure him? Why was his mother kneeling at his bedside and holding his hand instead of pounding on his chest to try to get him to breathe?

Why wasn't his father there at all?

Roland was in the room suddenly, and Carris was breathing again, returning to the ruddy colour he usually was and _oh by the Lady of Light it was a portable crystal_.

"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner, your father couldn't find me," panted the Elder, his kind brown eyes on the Clavat in the bed and Pardign was thanking him, shaking his shoulders and crying and he was hysterical and he didn't stop until Carris managed to tell him off for being embarrassing.

This sort of thing (_people in their beds, unable to breathe until Roland came in with his crystal_) happened daily now. Nobody had died yet, but that was a miracle, as was the constant energy of the tiny crystal and the minimal-yet-still-present aura of the town crystal. And they were all praying to whatever gods they had that this would keep up until Ancarui came back (_even though most people hated her for leaving them and oh it would be bittersweet when she came back home_).

The old Edge caravan, in this rush and terror, forgot the white girl and the spell; surviving came first, that was what they learnt in the caravan and that was a lesson that was hard to forget after learning it while an orc tried to crush your skull in.

Oh, Edge was ever so chaotic in those days. There was no real time for rage anymore.

The hole in the sky was disconcerting. Ancarui was on her back, staring at this hole in the sky and giggling absently. She was alone, alone but oh no there was Mio her little voice, her friend, her Lady of Light who'd been so good to her. They were side by side, staring at the blue blue blue sky with the white white white clouds. It was amazing.

"I have to go to sleep now…"

Mio's warmth was fading from the Owl Head's side, and she sat up hastily.

"What now? Where do I go from here?"

"Home," was the simple answer, a crystal shining at the girl's feet and everything faded as opposed to shattering beneath her feet.

The air was clean, and she didn't even stand within the chalice's radius when she killed the Meteor Parasite.

"Mama!"

"Mama, Papa! The sky's _reeeeeally _blue!"

Nadjyäa smiled to herself as she watched Momo Phiy and Deh Tiy race towards their house. They'd always been so healthy even in the miasma's approach, and it mystified her. She'd have to research it – if she lived long enough to.

"Hah, I wonder if it's clear skies where Rui is," she murmured, tipping her helmet back to look up at the sky and-

"EVERYONE! _THE MIASMA, IT'S GONE!_ THERE'S NO FOG IN THE SKY!" she screamed, adding with an unbelievably light heart, "_ANCARUI'S DONE IT!_"

The town square was full of people that morning. Children were dancing and squealing (despite not really knowing the danger of miasma) as adults discussed this marvel, this wonder this miracle this (_there were no words for it anymore, nothing could beat this oh what a soaring feeling it was to breathe clean air without the crystal's aid_)-

Caëran was the first to hear it, first to hear the sound of hoof on plank and first to click as to what it was. He smiled so very wide, and walked slowly towards the bridge because he had to see her, had to know for sure had to thank her for saving them all.

Ruianca saw this and elbowed Hex who caught Carris' attention, and so it went on to Dyne then Nadjyäa and Pardign at the same time because they were so caught up in the possibility of _their_ Ancarui being the saviour of the whole damn world.

And they raced to the town entrance because they knew what the glowing girl had been talking about, what work their beloved friend had to finish, knew the plan knew the result knew the legends that would be made.

They knew what she was the catalyst of now. And now they could finally grow old together.

Oh, and Ancarui herself? She had never looked so beautiful, so healthy, so _welcome_ as she did when she got out of the caravan and stood on that bridge with a grin so wide it threatened to split her face. And she was so _clean, miasma-free and __**pure**_.


End file.
